Secret Reporters No place to hide
Secret Reporters
Despite public outcry and condemnation of the incessant injustice prevailing in most government-owned agencies without any sincere move by the relevant authorities to bring the perpetrators to book, one could strongly say that corruption has come to stay without any plans of leaving soon.
This is evident in the life threat and unlawful suspension without pay of the Abuja Manager of Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority (OGFZA) Funmi Omosule, by the Authority’s Board of Directors over his alleged possession of fake degrees and NYSC certificates after he exposed a N100,000,000 million (One Hundred Million Naira) fraud in 2009 meant for the refurbishing of the Abuja and Lagos offices of the Authority.
SecretReporters learned that the budget for the scam refurbishing projects was purportedly padded with millions of Naira, while materials used for the supposed refurbishing were discovered to either be substandard or in most cases no items were procured at all but payments were made to nonexistent suppliers with fictitious receipts. It was also alleged that another N3,500,000 million (Three Million Five Hundred Thousand Naira) was fictitiously receipted for the old generating set which was refurbished and resupplied to the Authority as a new one.
It was gathered that Omosule, being privy to the planned fraud immediately drew the attention of the then Managing Director Noble Abe, who in turn quickly alerted one of the General Managers Alhaji Ukissa, who was awarded the contract of refurbishing the two offices even though he was a serving public servant. However, upon seeing that this leaked information may foil his planned looting spree, Alhaji Ukissa having the ears of the management allegedly instigated them against Omusule with well thought out plans to get him out of the way.
It was also gathered that in 2010, during the compulsory retirement of all level 17 officials nationwide who have served for at least eight years, the former President Goodluck Jonathan directed that all vacant positions be filled but the then Board Chairman, Ambassador Adamu Aliyu on a personal note told Omusule that qualified candidates in the Authority would be right-sized and upgraded before the advertisement of the remaining vacant positions.
Following this, verification exercise to identify candidates to be right-sized and upgraded began in late 2010 with 17years post NYSC experience stipulated in the Administration Manual of the Authority as the criteria for appointment into Grade level 17.
However, Omusule who claimed he possesses a 21 years’ post-NYSC experience coupled with immense leadership qualities acquired on the job and other sources since 2011 was sidelined during the appointment which he alleged was the practical handwork of Alhaji Ukissa.
“In April 2011, after the verification exercise when the Board met to consider promoting qualified candidates, the Head of Legal Messrs, Wasiu Sule and the Head of Human Resources Alenju Ngofa connived to hide my successful scores and personal file from the Board and even went further to distort my names from Funmilayo David Omosule and wrote Oluwafunmilayo O. Funmi in order to confuse other Board Members with the Chairman Ambassador Adamu Aliyu, and the Managing Director Dr. Noble Abe, fully supporting them”.
Unknowing to other board members which evidently were been misled, upon seeing the distorted name Oluwafunmilayo O. Funmi among the pile, the chairman Ambassador Adamu Aliyu, directed that a suspension letter without pay should be issued to him with cooked-up allegations of possessing a fake degree and NYSC certificates.
Surprisingly, the letter of suspension without pay bearing Oluwafunmilayo O. Funmi which according to the public service rules is illegal, was brought to him Funmilayo David Omosule as he immediately challenged the wrong name but was quickly interjected by Dr Noble Abe who directed him personally to hand over to the next ranked officer and proceed on suspension as stated by the Board.
In protest of this anomaly, a memo was written by Omosule and addressed to the MD Dr Noble stating that his scores and files were not presented as well as the distortion of his names which has influenced the decision of the board against him. Even so, the MD paid deaf ears to this, daring him to take any action he deems fit as he cannot reconvene the board just to reverse their decision.
Nonetheless, to be at par with the law, Omosule approached a Federal High Court in Abuja to declare the suspension unlawful and order his reinstatement. In 2015, the case was transferred to the National Industrial Court Abuja with 26th September 2019 set as the next date of hearing.
Sensing that the tables may turn against them, the duo Wasiu Sule and Alenju Ngofa SecretReporters learned are allegedly threatening to eliminate him if he dares shows up in court for the hearing. This according to our source was promptly reported to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) by the counsel to Omosule, but sadly, no action been taken to arrest and prosecute the duo who may be acting with the full backings of some highly placed individuals in the country.
Calls placed to the mobile number of the Chairman of the board for his own side of the story were not picked nor were messages sent to him replied.
